Podcasts vs. Articles: Which is More Impactful?

In a podcast the information that is provided usually includes more emotion than on paper. For example in “Anatomy of Doubt”, Marie’s story is told by her. Through her voice and feelings we get a deeper understanding of what Marie was going through. In the article we simply have the facts stated for us, and though we may read the same words we don’t feel them the same way. In a podcast the main difference is that the victim and her close friends and family tell the story from their perspectives, but in the article we get a third person perspective. 

There’s advantages and disadvantages to podcasts vs. articles. A podcast, as previously mentioned, tells you more about how the victim and the people around the victim were feeling. On the contrary, an article can more easily state what happened, this does not necessarily mean that we don’t get a feeling from the article but rather that the feeling is left more up to our interpretation. In the podcast, I could feel much empathy for Marie. It was clear to me that she was suffering and I fully believed Marie from the start of the podcast. In the article, however, it was harder to understand Marie and really to make up my mind of whether she was telling the truth or not. 

An advantage of articles however is that articles such as Marie’s can present you with pictures. In a podcast you visualize the story on your own, but in an article you can see what Marie’s house looked like or what the car of the perpetrator looked like. Another thing is the art in the article helped see how marie may have been feeling in that moment, though we don’t hear her say that we visually see how she was feeling. 

Another thing as well is that podcasts have an included time for your reaction, whereas articles allow you to process the information at your own pace. Whether this is an advantage or disadvantage really depends on how a person is impacted most. (344)